In fact Hugh Anderson ( four times world champion in the "tiddler" classes on the European GP circuits) visited the annual Easter race meeting at Bathurst, NSW in possibly 1978 to view the historic machine race and speak with some of us over the plans to run a similar event in NZ.
The inaugeral meeting took place in early Feb.1980 and three Aussies were invited to attend, Elmer McCable on a 7R AJS, Eric Debenham on a 1000cc Norton Vincent special and myself on a 1939 Mk.8 KTT Velocette.
We had a great time.
I took Velocettes over for the next few years, borrowed bikes for a few more years then went over regularly to spectate from then on.
The NZ HRR were very astute with the promotion and after accumulating some funds from successful meetings, started inviting overseas riders with famous racing motorcycles to be guests at the meeting.
Ivan Rhodes and the 1939 Velocette Roarer, Sammy Miller on the 1939 supercharged AJS 4, John Surtees on several occasions with a Vincent "Grey Flash", the 1939 supercharged BMW, Paul Smart on the 75o Imola Ducati, the ex Hailwood 500cc Honda-4 racer...the list goes on.This blog features some photos from the 2003 event, where the special guest machine was a Moto Guzzi V8 500cc racer.
There are always very inovative ideas in NZ..and Pukekohe is the place to see many of them.
In these photos you will see new Manx Norton engines with desmo valve operation, special Venom Velo racers etc...as well the special Velocette trophy, donated by Veloce Ltd in the 1930s to White's the Auckland based Velo importers, left idle for many years and now resurfaced to be presented annually at the meeting.
Left click on the photos to enlarge.
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